I had a few hundred copies of the map printed up, and I made cardboard counters using blank counters and rub-on numerals. I copied cassette tapes on my PET and labeled them by hand. I typed up a manual and had it photocopied. For the cover I drew a cute little picture of a PET with tank treads and a cannon emerging from its screen. The PET was so big and bulky that the rendition looked pretty good. I can’t draw, but I can use a ruler and compass, which were all I needed for this simple line drawing. I folded the 34×22″ map into quarters, and stuffed everything into a Zip-Lock bag. That’s how software was made in the late 1970s.
Chris Crawford on Game Design
Tanktics was developed by Chris Crawford in 1977 on a custom computer, and initially published for the Commodore PET the next year. The game was programmed in BASIC, and Avalon Hill later acquired and published the game for TRS-80, Apple II and Atari computers. The game was a hybrid typical of early tactical wargames, with the computer used to both calculate combat as well as provide an artificial intelligence opponent for a human player.
tactical wargamer
